


The Other Kogane

by King_Oj



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Anger, Anxiety, Character Death, Depressed Keith (Voltron), Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Help, Hunk & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Other, Overworking, Self-Harm, Stressed, brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-16 17:22:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11833461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/King_Oj/pseuds/King_Oj
Summary: Keith breaks down over a family member that nobody knew about.





	The Other Kogane

**Author's Note:**

> DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO ANY OF THE TAGGED TOPICS.  
> This fanfiction covers some pretty heavy stuff, if that could damage your mental health please do not read this.

After long months of gruelling training, Princess Allura decided that the time was right to give the paladins a well-deserved break. The team were all sat around eating breakfast (except Keith who always skipped the first meal to train early) when Allura decided to drop the idea. There was a moment of silence while everyone considered the plan. Shiro sighed in relief as the thought of a rest was amazing to him, Lance imagined all the hot space girls there would be as he squirmed in his chair, Pidge on the other hand thought the whole thing would be a waste of time as she didn’t like going outside all too much and just wanted to finish coding. As for Hunk, he pictured the group at a warm beach with him barbecuing rounds of burgers and hotdogs for the rest of the team. As they all discussed the possibilities of this trip, Shiro got up.

“Hey, I know you are all excited but don’t you think Keith should have an input in this? I’m gonna go get him.” As Shiro walked off to the training room Lance’s salt levels were rising.

“It’s not like he’s gonna come anyway, even if we drag him there he’ll just be raining on our parade. ALSO I need less competition for my plans, so maybe it would be better for him to stay he—” As Lance was just getting started Shiro arrived with a sweaty, tired Keith next to him.

“So Keith, We were just discussing about how it may be a good idea too—” Shiro started.

“Yeah I know, I know. Holiday blah blah space beach, no training, I heard it on the telecom and I’m not coming.” Keith replied hastily before turning around to exit the room but was stopped by Shiro’s cold but firm Galra arm.

“I know this isn’t your cup of tea Keith but a team’s a team and it would be weird not seeing your face as a part of that. I want you to know that this is a direct order from your captain, you are coming to the space beach whether you like it or not.”

“FINE. I’M COMING THEN. You’ll regret making me come.” Keith shouted as he released himself from Shiro’s grip and stormed back to the training centre.

“Keith!” Shiro started running to follow the younger male. Keith ran as fast as he could to the room and locked himself inside the arena before Shiro could arrive.

“Arena, activate level 54.” He said as he angrily readied himself. Keith had only successfully completed up to level 28 so this was purely an act of rage.

*Commencing level 54* The robotic voice stated as 345 generated Galra enemies began to circle Keith. It was too much for him, too much for anyone, he couldn’t battle with the flow of enemies that were constantly spawning even after they had just been killed. Once the selected user gets past level 15 the generated enemies could actually do damage and hurt the paladin. Keith’s irrational thinking had gotten dangerous and out of control yet again.

Shiro burst into the spectator stalls of the arena as the battle zone itself was locked. He banged his fist on the glass to grab Keith’s attention but there was no use. He ran over to the control panel and viciously grabbed every wire there and ripped them out of the motherboard. The whole room went dark and emergency alarms had been signalled. Shiro jumped down into the arena to see Keith curled up on the floor crying. His face was scratched but he showed no signs of major injury.

“Hey, hey it’s ok.” Shiro said softly as he moved Keith’s hair out of his face. “There’s something I need to know, isn’t there.” Keith looked up at the man who had been there for him through everything. He felt safe, reassured by Shiro’s trustworthy and empathetic nature. Keith grabbed Shiro’s extended hand and got up to be met with a warm embrace. He cried more into the man’s chest, the things he was remembering were the worst things he had ever had to remember. The next thing he knew he was being carried like a baby koala back to Shiro’s room, still releasing every emotion he had left in him.

When the two of them arrived in the captain’s quarters, Shiro placed the distressed younger man on the bed and grabbed a spare blanket to wrap around Keith. As Shiro sat down next to him, Keith began to explain himself, desperately trying to speak through tears.

“M-my brother. W-w-e were a-at t-t-he beach—” The man burst into tears again as memories became flooding back. Shiro held Keith’s hand which steadied the shaken man. “And.. it was a beautiful summer’s day.. We- we were on holiday, I was 12, he- he was 9. My Mom was sunbathing, Pa had gone fishing for the day. It was just me and K-Kai..” As he spoke that name tears flooded his eyes even more as he pushed through. Shiro placed his other arm around Keith to reassure him. “S-so I thought it would be c-cool to go climb up the r-rocks and jump into t-the ocean off them. We told Mom where we w-were off to and continued our journey. We did the same routine of climbing and jumping but bec-because Kai was y-younger and didn’t carry the Galra trait he tired quicker. His footing slipped more and more as we climbed again and again. Th-then on the last round he- he put his foot on an unstable rock and it—”

“Keith, I am so sorry. I didn’t know about this at all, you don’t need to continue if you don’t want to.” Shiro said as he started crying too.

“Well I’m this f-far in already so I might as well t-tell you.” He replied as he breathed in to finish. “ He was such a g-good boy, the r-rock crumbled beneath him as he fell, more and more r-rocks went with him.. I could h-hear his cries, his bones snapping under th-the weight. I screamed for Ma as I tried to lift the rocks off him. There were too many.. I couldn’t even see him under there.. When Mom came over she already knew what had happened she screamed for help, passers by came to help us lift rocks but.. there was  n-no u-use. When I lifted him out he didn’t look like my Kai.. He was covered in blood and his bones were completely smashed. As much as I tried to get life back into him, he didn’t respond. He died and it was all my fault.” Keith let out an agonizing scream that directly expressed his pain as he cried into his hands. The whole ship was silent. Shiro knew that nothing he said or did would help in any way for Keith. All he could do was watch the man cry for this was far beyond him. As Shiro watched Keith, he saw a series of slashed lines down the younger man’s arms. _How could you have let this happen. God dammit Shiro you are supposed to be here to fucking help him, why are you just watching. This has all been going on and you didn’t even know, you fucking failure of a leader._ Shiro’s conscience rattled his body as he realised how serious this was.

“I’m sorry Keith. I’m so fucking sorry.” Keith looked up, startled to hear Shiro out of all people curse. “I should have been there for you sooner, I should have sensed something was wrong.” Before the older man could continue he was met with a tight hug, it felt like a ‘thank you for listening’ sort of hug. The kind of hug that meant more than any word could mean.

For the rest of the day Keith spent his time in Shiro’s room, trying to calm himself. The man he idolised now knew his darkest secrets. He never really wanted this to happen but it just.. did. At least he would be able to get help now, something he had been secretly longing for since the incident happened. He had never been this open to anyone about anything before, it felt strange. Every now and then Shiro would come back to check on the red paladin in-between his work in the castle. The other paladins were discreetly told by him to look out for Keith as things were tough enough for him already and he didn’t need any extra stress. Shiro was determined to help Keith, and he was going to do everything in his power to get him safe and stable again.

When Shiro was away from Keith he was in the younger man’s room, looking for things that could be dangerous or harmful to the red paladin. The captain on arrival decided that he should clean the room, make it habitable once again. It was un naturally messy, the walls were scratched and dented, each mark showed anger and distress. Hunk, Pidge and Lance offered to help but the captain knew that there would be things in there that Keith would only trust him with. He kindly denied the offer but told the group that he was going to need their individual help with various things later. Just as he expected, Shiro found Keith’s Blade of Marmora covered in dried blood underneath a mountain of dirty clothes. He sheathed the blade and put it to one side. Most of the mess was clothes and a build up of plates and cups that Keith had snuck into his room with him. The area represented Keith’s emotions directly which was not going to help him if he was going to get better.

By the time Shiro had finished, Keith’s room looked as tidy as his own. The bed had been made with fresh soft sheets and the floor was now walkable. Shiro placed Keith’s blade in a chest which he would be keeping in his own room to only give to Keith on missions if he was stable enough. The captain had smoothened the walls out so there was no trace of anger left. He had also done Keith’s laundry and folded it nicely in his storage unit. When Shiro was satisfied he walked up the hall to find Pidge, he needed to ask her a favour.

Shiro found the green paladin in her usual place, the tech lab. This place was practically her’s now, she had even put a bed in there considering the amount of times she works late into the night and ends up falling asleep. Shiro wanted to install a panel in Keith’s room that would signal that he needed assistance. When pressed, an alert would go off to Shiro and Keith would have the choice to have a video chat with Shiro or to request to go to Shiro’s room to talk. As he told this all to Pidge he thought it would be a good idea for every paladin to have the assistance panel in their rooms. To Pidge, this procedure would be simple and she could get it done in a couple hours with help from Coran. Shiro left Pidge to work as he went back to Keith.

In the time that Shiro had gone, Keith had managed to shower in Shiro’s en-suite but realised halfway through that he had no clothes to change into. He decided to wait until Shiro got back, which resulted in him getting very cold. As he heard Shiro open his bedroom door, Keith poked his head out of the bathroom.

“Keith! It’s good to see you got up, how are you feeling?” The captain asked.

“Better than before, still not great but it’s a start.” He said, semi-shamefully. “But err.. I kinda realised that I don’t have a change of clothes. I was waiting till you got back cause I wasn’t planning on walking out of here naked.” The two shared a small laugh, that hadn’t happened in forever.

“Don’t worry, I just did a load of laundry and stuff so I’ll go get you something to wear.” Shiro said as he left with a small smile. He knew that things were going to pick up around here, he was going to be a better leader- that was good. He shortly returned with Keith’s shirt, boxers and jeans. When Keith had changed, Shiro decided it was time to take him back to his own room again. On the walk back he explained to Keith what he had done with the room so there was no real shock, that didn’t stop Keith from hugging Shiro tightly after seeing his fresh, happier room. Pidge had finished the assistance panels, everything was starting to work. Shiro left Keith to go do some other tasks.

Earlier in the day Shiro had asked Hunk to think of ways to improve Keith’s eating habits as they weren’t great. When he got back to him, Hunk had created samples of food and a list of things to help Keith with. Shiro was overjoyed at the effort the younger man had put in to help another paladin. Shiro gave Hunk a strong hug of appreciation to help express his thanks. He had asked Lance to watch over Keith to make sure he wasn’t overworking or overtraining himself so the blue paladin had come back to Shiro with a regimen that would quench Keith’s thirst for exercise but would only exercise him as much as he needed to be a paladin. It would tire him enough so he would sleep better and not get up for food at 1 am like normal. Shiro was so grateful for all the help that his fellow paladins had given him that he could cry- and he did. Pidge, Hunk and Lance called for a group hug when this happened as the three of them swarmed Shiro with love and kindness.

The next few weeks were better, Keith had been opening up more to Shiro as well as the other paladins because of the assistance panels, he had been sleeping better and looked healthier in general. Even though Keith still had his struggles with it all, he was able to deal with it well. With everyone’s guidance, he became happier. Keith was so incredibly grateful for his friends, for Pidge, Hunk, for Lance and especially Shiro. He didn’t know if he would even still be here without them. When he thought of Kai, he envisioned him smiling down, telling Keith things would get better, he was going to persevere through this for him, for everyone that was persevering for him.


End file.
